The European Union is doing the same as they did in 2008-09, extend and pretend, dishing out cheap loans to businesses and hoping for a recovery.

What's worrying today is that excessive optimism comes as European governments invest in the recovery by increasing public spending as the central bank keeps rates low and floods capital markets with liquidity.

The problem is that banks have high exposure to small business loans, which is the backbone of the continent's economy. If these businesses fail, another round of economic pain is dead ahead.

WSJ interviews Miguel Ríos, who operates four karaoke bars in Barcelona, said the pandemic and resulting government shutdown of his businesses forced him to borrow nearly $100k and put ten of his employees on a government wage-support program. He said his bars had been shuttered for almost one year as he is on the brink of financial disaster, with piles of insurmountable debt.

The European Union is set to recognize a standard for vaccine passports in a what is being pitched as a move to reignite travel within the bloc.

While admitting that the use of such passports at the moment would be “premature” due to low vaccination rates amongst total populations, the EU says that plans to implement a bloc wide standard will likely be picked up in the near future.

EU commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas told the Daily Mail it was “perfectly imaginable that this can open avenues for other use, including facilitating travel.”

Brexit Britain is reportedly refusing to grant the European Union the rank of a sovereign state, by denying its ambassador to the UK full diplomatic rights and privileges.

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Barrell, had written a letter to Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab outlining the bloc’s frustration that the newly-independent United Kingdom would not offer statuses to its diplomats that “reflect the specific character of the EU”, which it claims it deserves because it has a currency, a court, and can make laws.

The UK, however, does not want to set a precedent by giving mission staff from the EU, considered simply another international body, the same status as diplomats from sovereign nations, according to the BBC’s report on Thursday.

In recent years, the term "humiliation robbery" has been coined and entered Swedish media parlance to specifically denote crimes that also feature elements of moral, physical, or sexual torture. The overall spike in violent crime spurred the authorities to rethink its practice of omitting the ethnicity of the perpetrators for ethical reasons.

Sweden Democrats EU parliamentarian Charlie Weimers has unleashed a ruthless attack against what he called the EU's "headless" mass immigration policy and demanded that the bloc protect Europe's own people.

It was during a debate in the European Parliament concerning the humanitarian situation for immigrants on the EU's external borders that Charlie Weimers lashed out against the consequences of multiculturalism.

The Purchasing Managers' index (PMI) reflects economic trends in the manufacturing and service sectors. A PMI below 50 points indicates a downturn of economic activity. The Eurozone's PMI for December sank to 49.1 amid new lockdown measures imposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

A double-dip recession in Europe seems an "increasingly inevitable" prospect, a PMI survey conducted by Markit Economics revealed on Friday.

According to preliminary estimates, the Eurozone's PMI tanked to 47.5 in January, down from 49.1 registered in December.

Joe Biden begins his first full day as the 46th president of the United States today with as daunting a list of foreign-policy challenges as almost any of his predecessors. After four years of Donald Trump, the new administration must overcome skepticism about America’s ability to deal with the great tests facing the world, including the rise of China as a 21st-century superpower, the spread of nuclear weapons, and the onslaught of man-made climate change. To this list can be added a new issue: patching up the transatlantic alliance.

A new survey of citizens of 11 countries suggests that Joe Biden faces an almost impossible task when it comes to his goal of repairing frayed US-European relations. But it’s trite to simply blame four years of Donald Trump.

A recent survey commissioned by the European Council on Foreign Relations has found that most Europeans look to Germany rather than the United States as their most important partner, having lost faith in America’s ability to elect leaders who share their continent’s vision and values.

When seen in the context of the inauguration of Biden as the 46th American president, such a finding seemingly stands as a stark reminder of the unhealed scars that four years of an “America first” focus by Biden’s predecessor Trump have left when it comes to America’s relationship with the world. It also suggests it will be difficult for Biden’s administration to salve the underlying wounds and get America back on the track of being the global leader it aspires to be.

Dutch police turned a water cannon on hundreds of anti-lockdown protestors who were taking part in a banned protest against the Dutch government and its tough coronavirus lockdown.

Police on horseback also moved in to break up the demonstration on a large square ringed by museums, including the Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam municipality said riot police took action to disperse the crowd because people weren’t adhering to social distancing measures.

Few of the protestors wore masks, which are not mandatory, and most did not respect social distancing rules.

With Italian politics once again in shambles (heading for its 132nd government in 160 years), Europe is now facing yet another debacle as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has resigned two months before the country's election.

This has pressured the euro lower this morning.

Rioters attacked the car of the King of Belgium while he was inside during protests over the death of “Ibrahima B.” in police custody.

The rioting occurred earlier this week after the death of 23-year-old Ibrahima B. in police custody after he was stopped and detained by officers on January 9th.

A demonstration took place at 3 p.m. in the afternoon on Wednesday but by 4 p.m. the situation had degenerated into violence as a mob of 100 people broke off from the demonstration and rushed into a tunnel, Sudinfo reports.

Police and rioters started to clash at the scene and a convoy passing by the area was attacked with rocks. It was later confirmed a car in the convoy belonged to Belgium’s King Philippe, and that he was inside the vehicle as it was being attacked.

Some 10,000 people marched through the center of the Austrian capital Vienna on Saturday to protest against restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of Covid-19, and to demand the resignation of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

Coronavirus skeptics took to the streets as Kurz and his government discussed the possibility of extending the ongoing third lockdown in Austria, which includes movement restrictions and the closure of all non-essential businesses. The official announcement is expected on Sunday.

Today – Friday 15th January – over 50,000 restaurants are planning to open, an act of mass civil disobedience against “anti-Covid” lockdown measures which have massively hurt the restaurant business, especially small family-owned businesses.

Spreading through social media under the hashtag #IoOpro (“I am opening”), the movement is largest country-wide act of civil disobedience since lockdowns began.

The Czech Republic has put a new gas pipeline, which is connected to the EUGAL pipeline – a terrestrial extension of Nord Stream 2, into operation. This was reported by Deutsche Welle with reference to the statement of the Praga-based operating company Net4Gas.

The 150-kilometer pipeline begins on the Czech border with German Saxony and ends in the west of the country at a gas distribution center next to the border with German Bavaria.

Its construction began back in 2017 and its overall cost was 540 million euros. The EUGAL highway runs from the Baltic coast through Germany to the Czech Republic and on to Austria.

The European Union and China have agreed “in principle” to a deal on investment after seven long years of negotiation, pointedly ignoring the concerns of the incoming Biden administration. The economic consequences of the so-called Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) remain unclear, but the political signals are telling: the EU is following an essentially German economic agenda centered on global trade while the United States of America’s attempts to economically contain China are manifestly ineffective.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the agreement with Trumpesque hyperbole, to not say fake news, gushing that China had just sealed a deal with “the largest single market in the world.” In fact, with Brexit the EU economy is now unambiguously the second-largest in the world, with a respectable nominal GDP of $18.3 trillion (as against the United States’ $21.2 trillion and China’s fast-growing $15.2 trillion).

The European Union will maintain its engagement with all Venezuelan political actors, including "Juan Guaido and other representatives of the outgoing National Assembly elected in 2015."

The European Union avoided referring to the opposition politician Juan Guaido as Venezuela's "acting president" once the mandate of the National Assembly over which he presided expired on Tuesday.

"Venezuela urgently needs a political solution to end the current impasse through an inclusive process of dialogue and negotiation leading to credible, inclusive, and democratic processes," said Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

He added that the EU will maintain its engagement with all Venezuelan political and social actors, including "Juan Guaido and other representatives of the outgoing National Assembly elected in 2015."

Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency boss Dan Eliasson's luxurious trip to the Canary Islands overshadowed previous lapses by high-ranking politicians, such as shopping tours, which defied the government's own recommendations.

Despite the Swedish Civil Contigencies Agency's (MSB) general advice against unnecessary travel, its director general Dan Eliasson travelled on a Christmas and New Year vacation to the Canary Islands, the newspaper Expressen reported.

Amid the public outrage that ensued, Eliasson fought back that the trip was “necessary”.

“I have given up a lot of trips during this pandemic, but I thought this was necessary,” Dan Eliasson told Expressen. “I have, of course, been free during the Christmas holidays and I have worked a lot from distance,” Eliasson added, somewhat enigmatically.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the Covid-19 vaccine developed by US biotech company Moderna for use across the EU, making it the second jab given the green light across the 27-nation bloc so far in the pandemic.

The EU drug regulator recommended granting the vaccine a conditional marketing authorization for use in people aged 18 and over, according to a statement released by the agency on Tuesday.

Emer Cooke, Executive Director of the EMA described the vaccine as “another tool to overcome the current emergency,” adding that the regulator’s work would “always be guided by the scientific evidence.”

Israel and Greece are set to sign the largest ever security agreement between the two countries, worth up to $1.68 billion, the Times of Israel has reported.

The deal to be signed by the respective defence ministries, approves the establishment and operation of a flight school for the Hellenic Air Force by Elbit Systems, Israel's largest private arms company.

Elbit is said to have supplied 85 per cent of the drones used in the war on Gaza in 2014, when over 2,200 Palestinians – 500 of them children – were killed in only 50 days. The Israeli arms company has ten sites across Britain.

The Greek government will also purchase training aircraft from Israel, as well as simulators, training and logistic support. The agreement will cover more than 20 years, the Israeli Defence Ministry announced.

On Tuesday, Dec. 15, Hungary adopted amendments to its constitution aimed at protecting children from the irreversible and damaging effects of transgenderism as well as being raised without opposite-sex parents.

The change was meant to strengthen the legal standing of the natural, heterosexual family and of the innate biological reality of the two sexes. Further, it aims to emphasize the Christian basis of Hungary's culture and the government's commitment to that culture's preservation and propagation.

The Court of Rome has blown a hole in Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte's Wuhan virus lockdown restrictions, declaring them "illegitimate" and "unconstitutional."

Italy's constitution does not permit the government to declare a state of emergency due to the risk of public health and gives the state specific regulatory powers only in case of a declaration of war, Judge Alessio Liberati ruled Dec. 16.

The Decrees of the President of the Council of Ministers (DPCM) employed thus far to impose lockdowns are administrative acts which cannot be used to limit fundamental human rights and constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, Dr. Liberati ruled.

Italian newspaper Il Giornale described the verdict as a "bombshell" ruling by the Court of Rome quoting the judge's words dismissing the DPCMs as "vitiated by violations for lack of motivation" and "by multiple profiles of illegality."

THE EUROPEAN UNION has agreed "in principle" a major investment pact with China which risks putting the bloc on a collision course with Joe Biden's incoming administration.

On Wednesday European Commission and Council presidents Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel backed the agreement at a video conference with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron were also on the call.

An Italian business group had predicted that nearly 400,000 businesses could close due to the economic impact of the Chinese coronavirus and lockdown restrictions.

The General Confederation of Enterprises, Professional Activities, and Self-Employment (Confcommercio) has predicted that over 390,000 businesses are at risk of closure, a figure that represents around 7.2 per cent of the total number of companies in the country.

The lockdown restrictions, combined with a 10.8 per cent drop in consumption rates in Italy, have drastically affected businesses across the country, with some industries being hit particularly hard, newspaper Il Giornale reports.

The leader of the Scottish National Party in the UK Parliament has slammed Boris Johnson’s trade deal with the EU and vowed to vote against it in a complete U-turn on Brexit.

Speaking on Wednesday, Ian Blackford, SNP leader in Westminster, said that Scotland would soon be heading back into the European Union, having seen the PM’s “bad Brexit deal.”

“It’s the people of Scotland that are sovereign, and it’s the people of Scotland that will determine to take them back into the European Union with independence,” he stated during the five-hour debate on the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill in Parliament on Wednesday.

The SNP MP had already been cautioned by the speaker of the house for repeatedly interrupting Boris Johnson during his opening speech.

Negotiators from the UK and the EU reached a post-Brexit trade agreement just one week before the end of an 11-month transition period that came into force when the United Kingdom left the bloc on 31 January.

Sputnik goes live from London as UK lawmakers have returned to parliament to debate and vote on the country's post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union that was agreed on Christmas Eve.

The parliament previously said the agreement will be scrutinised by members of the House of Lords before a vote takes place.

EU nations unanimously backed the deal worked out by negotiators from London and Brussels, a sign that the last-minute deal - the text of which was released on Saturday - is on track to become binding international law.

Or at least, so one might think.

Brussels bureaucrats (along with a chorus of sell-side analysts covering the pound) have pointed out in the days since the deal was struck that it isn't over yet. And as at least one top British official pointed out earlier today, UK businesses might be in for a "bumpy ride" (especially the financial services industry).

As Europe begins vaccinating the first wave of high-priority patients, a "glitch" has already emerged: many health-care workers and others have refused to take the vaccine, as skepticism and suspicion remain elevated.

A similar phenomenon has played out in the US, but to a less intense degree. But the situation, which we discussed last night, is now one of a variety of reasons, from a shortage of supplies and raw materials, to an uncooperative populace, that public-health officials are growing worried about hitting lofty vaccination targets.

And so, in Spain at least, government bureaucrats are fighting back, as Health Minister Salvador Illa warned the country would set up a "registry" for everybody who refuses the vaccine.

In contrast to the EU, the US Congress passed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act in June 2019, and on September 22, 2020, the US House of Representatives passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

As The Gatestone Institute's Judith Bergman notes, the US has sanctioned at least 28 Chinese officials over their actions in Xinjiang. The list includes senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, such as current Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, who executes Chinese government policy in the region. He is also the current First Political Commissar of the XPCC, a role in which he has exercised control over the entity.

US President-elect Joe Biden called on Monday for stronger coalitions against China on the trade and economic fronts, even as the European Union appeared close to a bilateral investment agreement with Beijing.

“As we compete with China and hold China’s government accountable for its abuses on trade, technology, human rights and other fronts, our position will be much stronger when we build coalitions of like-minded partners and allies,” said Biden, who will assume office on January 20.

“On any issue that matters to the US-China relationship – from pursuing a foreign policy for the middle class, including a trade and economic agenda that protects American workers, our intellectual property and the environment – to ensuring security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, to championing human rights – we are stronger and more effective when we are flanked by nations that share our vision,” Biden said.

EU member states gave political backing to Brussels’ planned investment pact with China on Monday, clearing the way for a deal between the world’s biggest economic blocs.

At a meeting of ambassadors, the German EU presidency noted that no member had “raised a stop sign and the way for a political endorsement was thus cleared”, a diplomat said.

The diplomats noted “recent positive developments” in negotiations, with China reportedly addressing concerns over the alleged use of forced labour on its farms.

Moscow has warned that increasing Western military activity near Russian borders may ultimately have dangerous consequences. This year has seen more NATO vessels and planes coming close to the country's territory.

Speaking to government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Russia's Deputy Minister of Defense Alexander Fomin recalled some recent close calls, and accused the US and its allies of also using "aggressive rhetoric."

"In 2020, the activity of the air and naval forces [of NATO] has increased significantly, and situations that can lead to serious incidents are increasingly emerging," Fomin said, "These actions were openly provocative. The incidents were avoided only thanks to the high level of professional training of Russian pilots and sailors."

Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin has criticized US refusal to extend the New START arms control treaty as well as its plans to deploy missiles in Europe, vowing to take “proportionate retaliatory measures.”

"Russia invited the United States to prolong the New START (Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms) and simultaneously get down to joint work to draft a new agreement that would take into account all factors influencing strategic stability,” Fomin said in an interview with local daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Sunday.

“In the light of the current political situation in the United States, we do not rule out that the US stance on this issue may change," Fomin added, while insisting that the American side has different priorities, for which reason it has shown little interest in extending the treaty that will expire on February 5, 2021.

Hundreds of refugees, including women and children, have been left without shelter in freezing conditions Bosnia-Herzegovina, days after a fire destroyed their already squalid camp.

More than a thousand refugees, trying to reach Western Europe, were stranded in burnt-out tents in the Lipa camp in northwest Bosnia on Saturday as heavy snow fell and winter temperatures suddenly dropped.

Earlier this week, a fire destroyed four large tents at the camp, and left refugees with no facilities or heat.

Bosnian authorities have so far failed to find new accommodations for the refugees.

The US has slapped Chinese technology companies with multiple rounds of sanctions, recently adding Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China’s biggest microchip maker, to its technology exports blacklist. All this while the Treasury has granted exemptions to US tech giants, allowing them to continue to do business with the PRC.

European diplomats and tech executives are becoming "increasingly frustrated" with America’s unilateral sanctions against China, and fear that the restrictions are barring the bloc’s companies from entering the Chinese market, thus giving American firms enjoying exemptions a competitive advantage, the Financial Times has reported, citing business and diplomatic sources.

“So far, US companies have been given licenses to supply Huawei, while European suppliers cannot,” one anonymous executive told the newspaper.

It is still too early to say, but perhaps the U.S. election is the beginning of a new ‘Turning’ (in the sense of the ‘Fourth Turning’). Of course, what happens in the U.S. is most people’s primary focus now; but even as that plays out over the coming year – perhaps chaotically – the seeds sown on 3 November, and in its aftermath, take us to a pivot: Does the centralising project of progressive ‘wokedom’ in Blue America, and in Merkel’s Europe, have the ‘grit’ to persevere – or will its leaders fold in the face of the approaching crises – and concomitant public anger?

Dr. Wolfgang Wordarg, pulmonologist and former head of a public health department, and Dr. Michael Yeadon, ex-Pfizer research director for respiratory diseases, petitioned the EMA, the European Medicines Agency, on December 1, 2020, to immediately stop clinical trials of the Corona vaccines.

The petition has been supported by at least 80,000 people and can be further supported.

The flood of emails from concerned supporters was so high so that during the peaks the EMA’s server was temporarily unavailable. Nevertheless, as of December 11, 2020, there has been no response, no comment from the EMA on the petitioners’ submission.

In response to the petitioner’s email, Ms. Irene Bachmann (p2@bfarm.de), acting as Mr. Enzmann’s absentee deputy, responded, stating in substance that it was assumed that the EMA would get back to the petitioners on this matter.

Dublin and Paris have imposed restrictions on travel from Britain for at least 48 hours. It comes as a slew of European countries mull travel bans over the new coronavirus strain the UK government has warned Brits about.

The Irish government says the measures, banning private travel between the UK and Ireland, will take effect on Sunday night and initially stay in place for at least two days. Cargo planes and freight vessels, as well as some essential supply-chain workers, will still be allowed to cross the border.

“General travel between here and Britain is going to be restricted, and we will review it on Tuesday morning,” Transport Minister Eamon Ryan told Virgin Media News.

A new paroxysmal eruptive episode started at Etna volcano, Italy on the morning of December 21, 2020. The Aviation Color Code has been raised to Red at 09:34 UTC.

According to the Etna Volcano Observatory, a strong intensification of strombolian activity started at Etna's Southeast Crater at 09:08 UTC.

The weather conditions don't allow continuous observation of the current phenomenon.

From a seismic perspective, the average amplitude of volcanic tremor in the Southeast Crater has high values.

The EU is going through arguably its greatest crisis of confidence. Regardless of the current state of Brexit talks, Britain’s move to leave the bloc manifests itself as an unprecedentedly poor indictment of the Brussels project. Throw in the fallout regarding the EU’s coronavirus recovery fund, and subsequent in-fighting between member states, the future looks bleak at best. To make matters worse, Mr Obama ? still one of the most influential voices in global politics ? has twisted the knife with a damning assessment.

The Spanish government will no longer sterilize disabled people against their will. Despite the fact that eugenics is generally considered a thing of the past, forced sterilization is still permitted in multiple US states.

The Spanish government officially ended the forced sterilization of disabled people on Thursday, publishing new legislation in an official newsletter. According to the newsletter, “In the last decade, more than a thousand forced sterilizations have been practiced in Spain, most of them on women.”

“The end to this practice...brings an end to one of the most detrimental human rights violations allowed under Spanish law,” the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (CERMI) in a statement on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the US sanctioned companies based in China and the UAE, accusing them of helping Iran export petrochemicals, as the Trump administration continues to ramp up the pressure on Tehran.

The Treasury Department said in a statement that it blacklisted four companies for facilitating the export of petrochemicals produced by an entity in Iran that is already under US sanctions.

The US also hit a Vietnam-based company with sanctions over its alleged connection with “significant transactions for the transport of petroleum products from Iran.” The sanctions seize any US assets the companies may have and block US citizens from doing business with them.

Imagine that you had neighbors who were constantly stealing your belongings or damaging your property.

How would you respond? By inviting those neighbors to a party? By celebrating how they have the same “values” as you?

Israel is an abusive neighbor for the European Union.

Through a freedom of information request, I learned that Israel has caused destruction worth more than $2 million to EU aid projects in the occupied West Bank over the past five years.

Yet rather than taking any action against Israel, EU representatives regularly sip champagne with and shower gifts on their abusive neighbor.

A host of European leaders are self-isolating after the French President, Emmanuel Macron, tested positive for Covid-19.

Mr Macron, 42, will self-isolate for seven days while working remotely, the Elysée Palace said in a statement.

The French president attended a number of high-profile events in recent days, including an EU summit.

Following his diagnosis several other European leaders, including the Spanish PM, said they would self-isolate.

"The President of the Republic has been diagnosed positive for Covid-19 today," the Elysée said on Thursday morning. The diagnosis was made following a "test performed at the onset of the first symptoms", the statement added.

The French president's wife Brigitte Macron, who is 67, is self-isolating but has no symptoms.

The presidential postelection period unfolding now in the US is having a big impact on the political class in Europe. Historically speaking this is nothing new. Every politician in Europe knows that any major political change in the US is bound to have, the day after, an effect on his own decision-making policy and likely determine the time span of his career. This mode of mandatory pro-American mimicry among European politicians has been playing out in full force since 1945.

Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that the mainstream media in Europe, seconded by EU high officials, with a very timid exception of Poland, Hungary and Slovenia, are piggybacking on US media outlets in a joint effort to unseat Trump and his legacy. The German political class, with Chancellor Merkel at the top of the EU System, is at the forefront of this anti-Trump pro-Biden mimicry.

New data out this week indicates that the European Union has suffered aggregate economic losses amounting to over €120 billion due to its policy of imposing sanctions against Russia. That’s according to figures released by the Dusseldorf Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Yet European leaders at an EU summit this week again called for the extension of sanctions on Russia, which will roll on into the middle of next year and probably beyond that date. This lockstep action by the bloc is only leading to more tensions with Russia and taking a political direction to nowhere except more conflict. Those EU sanctions were first imposed in July 2014 over dubious allegations of Russia’s malign involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. Moscow has rightfully reciprocated with counter-sanctions on European exports of agriculture and other goods.

The UK has fired a warning shot to Brussels over no-deal after readying Royal Navy boats to patrol its fishing waters as negotiations enter their final 48 hours.

Four 80-metre armed vessels have been placed on standby to guard British waters from EU trawlers in the event that there is no new agreement on fishing rights after December 31 when transitional arrangements end.

The confirmation of the move by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) comes as Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned on both sides of the Channel that a no-deal outcome looked more likely than an agreement in the trade negotiations.

Swedish healthcare workers are resigning at alarming rates.

The exodus from the industry has been so stark that the chairwoman of the Swedish Association of Health Professionals, Sineva Ribeiro, has called the situation "terrible", according to Bloomberg.

Prior to the pandemic, the country was already facing a shortage of specialists and nurses, the report notes. Now, nearly a year into the Covid crisis and with Stockholm’s intensive care capacity hitting 99%, there are fewer qualified people available to work in healthcare than there were in the Spring.

The UK is poised to lose the ability to share vital security data if there is a no-deal Brexit, Dominic Raab has admitted – but he denied that meant Britons will be “less safe”.

“There are certainly instruments that we may not have access to,” the Foreign Secretary said – ahead of a crunch decision whether to abandon the negotiations today.

Among the databases the UK could be shut out of are SIS II, recording suspected terrorists and major criminals, live passenger records and DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration details.

Danish pensioners' savings are indirectly involved in the supply of weapons to the UAE and Saudi Arabia – two countries heavily involved in the conflict in Yemen that the UN has designated as the worst current humanitarian crisis in the world.

Fifteen of Denmark's 16 largest pension funds have invested almost DKK 3 billion ($500 million) kroner in foreign weapons manufacturers supplying countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a new report from Oxfam IBIS has revealed, accusing the pension funds of profiteering.

One of the 21 companies where Oxfam IBIS found Danish pension money is the US missile manufacturer Raytheon.

The European Commission followed up an unproductive “11th-hour” dinner meeting between their president and Britain’s Boris Johnson with threats to refuse British air, road, and rail traffic unless the country agrees to submit to EU ‘contingency’ rules.

British air lines would be prevented from landing in European airports, British road hauled fright would be prevented from crossing borders, and the Eurotunnel railway that links Great Britain and France would be closed by the European Union if the UK government fails to meet Europe’s demands by January 1st 2021.

While the document presenting the no-deal scenario — characterised as a list of threats even by pro-Remain outlets in Britain — promises a way out of these penalties, it is at a cost to Britain. In order to get a six-month reprieve from Europe’s wrath, Britain has to agree to 12 months of surrendering its fishing waters and, much worse, agree to accept the EU’s competition and ‘level playing field’ demand.

A statement on strengthening media cooperation issued by China Media Group (CMG) and its European media partners, calling on the Chinese and European media to fulfill their responsibilities as public information disseminators and jointly help the international community to gather a strong force to overcome the pandemic.

The statement was made during the "2020 European Media Partners Cooperation Online Forum" on December 10, hosted by CMG with the theme of "Mutual Trust Dialogue for Win-Win Cooperation".

Twenty-eight delegates from 25 organizations in 16 European countries and China had in-depth discussions on how to strengthen coordination, deepen ties, unite to fight the pandemic, and bring greater confidence to the world through in-depth exchanges.

This Monday marked 50 years since one of the 20th century’s most iconic moments, when German Chancellor Willy Brandt fell to his knees in Warsaw, emotionally apologizing for the horrors the Nazis had unleashed on Eastern Europe.

It was one of the milestones of the Neue Ostpolitik – Bonn’s policy aimed at normalizing relations with the USSR and its East European satellites. On the day of this anniversary, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wrote the following: “Unlike Brandt, we no longer have to go via Moscow to talk to our eastern neighbors nowadays. Many partners in Eastern and Central Europe now view Russia very critically – and German foreign policy must take our neighbors’ concerns seriously. In addition to offers of dialogue, clear German positions vis-à-vis Moscow are therefore important for maintaining trust in Eastern Europe.”

Three European firms are bidding for a role in a new more environmentally-friendly waste-to-energy plant in the Israeli settlement of Maaleh Adumim.

The location of the plant – in occupied territory, and therefore illegal under international law – has also not deterred the European Union, which supports the implementation of a 2030 Israeli strategic waste management plan that includes the Maaleh Adumim plant with $1.8 million.

The plant is slated to be built at the “Good Samaritan” recycling park east (and deep into occupied territory) of Maaleh Adumim and only a few hundred meters away from small Palestinian shepherd communities.

Neither the EU, nor European companies, can claim ignorance about this. The tender for the project was issued in October last year, leaving plenty of time for due diligence.

The ban will come into force since the pandemic safety rules that allow free travel within the bloc will stop applying to the UK following the end of the Brexit transition period.

British citizens will no longer be able to freely travel in Europe due to the bloc's COVID-19 safety rules after the UK exits the bloc on 1 January, The Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

Hungary and Croatia are not included in the list, the European Commission said, and eight non-EU countries, including Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, have been placed on the list of "safe" third nations.

It would seem to be a straightforward proposition: two member states of the European Union – Greece and Cyprus – are protesting breaches of territorial waters by Turkey. So how about some EU solidarity?

One idea being put forward by Greece is for the 27-member bloc to impose an arms embargo on Turkey. However, as EU leaders gather for a summit this week, foreign affairs commissioner Joseph Borrell is playing down such a move for collective sanctions against Ankara.

Greece has censured Germany – which currently holds the rotating EU presidency seat – for failing to show leadership. Athens complains that the bloc has a common defense commitment and that European nations should not be supplying weapons to a country which could use those munitions against EU members.

The United Nations Third Committee - in charge of social, humanitarian and cultural issues - approved on November 18 the Resolution "Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”.

The Resolution, recalling that "The victory over Nazism in World War II contributed to the creation of the United Nations in order to save future generations from the scourge of war" raised alarm for the spread of neo-Nazi, racist, and xenophobic movements in many parts of the world.